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| Sword of Fire Ministries |
Two Trees
Ephesians 1:17 – ‘I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. One of the greatest challenges believers face on the earth is to be aware of the source of what we ‘know’. You only have to put a group of Christians together for a short while and you will see that there are different perceptions of what God is revealing, as well as many different ways of interpreting how to live in line with God’s revealed will.God’s desire is that we live in unity. But this unity is not sourced from human wisdom, decisions or desires. It is the unity that can only come from living from the source of Life itself and will mean that our differences can become embraced in the divine Will of God. Our role is to see God in the difference – not the difference. Such a position will require faith and humility. Faith to see and believe in God’s ability to bless and perfect His plan through His people and humility to realise that we only see a part of what He is doing. The only valid source of wisdom to know how to live on earth comes by the Spirit of God. The great deception going back to the beginning of mankind living on earth is that freedom to choose based on our human understanding will bring life. In the beginning … was a perfect plan and perfect provision for the earth. God was the source of all life and that life was represented by the Tree of Life in the middle of the garden. But before humankind there was fallen-kind – created beings who were opposed to the will of God and committed to the destruction of His creation. The fallen beings were banished to the earth and preceded the creation of man and woman. So the earth had the presence of corruption through these fallen beings. So on the earth was good – and evil. The second tree represented the knowledge of what was good and what was evil. Man and women were not meant to eat of this tree. Why not? What is wrong with knowledge? Isn’t it a good thing to know stuff? Why did God put the tree there? Was it to tempt Adam and Eve? By the time man was on the earth there was the reality of fallen-ness. Satan and those who had joined him in rebellion against God had been confined to the earth. Luke 10.18 shows that Satan fell from heaven to the earth. Mankind was put onto the earth and into the world from the source of God. God breathed His Life into man and this Life was to enable man to live on the earth in relationship with God and in fulfilment of the mandate to have dominion on the earth. A created being was to represent the Creator on the earth and fulfil the divine plan for life on earth. This was not just a functional role but also a relational representation of God on the earth. God was the one who talked with man, delighting in the relationship and the connectedness. It was man’s role to subdue the earth. Why? Because there was rebellion present through the source of rebellion. The earth was the habitation of evil. The plan was that created beings, separate from God, would act on behalf of God to bring His divine will and purpose to the earth. In order for mankind to rule on the earth there needed to be an understanding of what was on the earth. The tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the garden because they were representative of the two opposing sources and forces on the earth. They were the ‘truth’ of what was on the earth and so Adam and Eve had to be aware of the reality of life on earth or they could not have dominion. God was not protecting them from this reality and, having dominion, their role was to ‘know’ what was present on the earth’. Their knowledge was from the divine source. God pointed out the tree to them but told them not to eat of it because the knowledge of the second tree was limited to knowledge of what was both good and evil on the earth. Evil was banished to earth – therefore there was already the reality of evil among them. But what about goodness? What’s wrong with knowing about that? The goodness represented by the second tree was also limited to the goodness that was possible without God as source. Satan was once a divine being. He lived in the presence of goodness. He knew goodness. He rejected it. He has knowledge of both good and evil and he had the ability to choose good and evil. God created humankind in freedom and intelligence. Intelligence and freedom required choice. The second tree was representative of fallen angels who made choice. It was representative of ‘post-Fall’ knowledge of Satan and his cohorts. This tree was never intended to represent the fall of mankind, as it existed before the Fall. If mankind were to eat of this tree they would have eaten of the source of the Fall – choosing against God’s will. Satan did it and then man did it. Life is a choice.  From the moment of eating the fruit mankind lost their source of knowledge from God and was limited to earthly knowledge of what would work from their own understanding. Eternal, divine knowledge was removed from them and there was no way back. God set an angel with a sword of fire to guard the tree of life so the mankind could not access it. The first realisation that came was of ‘shame’. They were naked and ashamed. Being separate from God brought a realisation that was something inherently and integrally wrong in their ‘being’. They were not designed to ‘be’ without the divine source. Shame entered the human condition. The dictionary definition of shame is ‘a state of unworthiness and a sense of disgrace’. What a perfect description of what happened in the Fall! The ones worthy of relationship and communion with God were no longer able to relate to God in the same way. The grace that was upon them was removed and they were in a state of dis-grace. Adam and Eve made fig leaves to try and hide their shame and mankind has been making fig leaves ever since. They can be much more sophisticated but they are all for the same purpose – to try and address the sense of unworthiness and disgrace of ‘being’. They can be fig leaves of success in a career, material possessions, power, influence…. But they only hide what is the ever-present truth – that there is only one source of worth and grace available to us and nothing else can replace that source. Before the Fall man ‘believed God’ and obeyed Him. He had faith in God. After the Fall man was left to the limits of what he knew. He had faith in himself. The faith on earth without God is limited to faith in what is seen that mankind can achieve. It is revelation. The more faith man has in his own earthly ability the more unbelief towards God is birthed in his heart. The great original deception is part of the human heart – which man can be like God and know what God knows. The only knowledge available on earth without submission to God is confined to human ability and evil influence. The fruit of earthly knowledge is pride. 1 Cor 8:1 – knowledge puffs up. Earthly knowledge is limited to the experience of what works on the earth. Knowledge from God is an entirely different knowledge. It is Life itself. It has the blessing of the Divine Trinity embedded in the revelation. Humankind was designed to access divine wisdom and revelation – accessing the thoughts of God. After the Fall this access was lost (Isaiah 55.8). Life Restored John 3:19-21 Christ’s redeeming act went back to the Fall and recovered what was lost – man’s unbroken relationship and communion with God. He was the source of Life and he provided the opportunity once again for mankind to choose which Tree to live by. Jesus, as a man, modelled living from the source of Father’s will. He modelled eating from the tree of life. He declared his food was to do the will of the Father – even to the point of choosing His Father’s will above His own (Luke 22:42). His death enabled the Spirit of Life to be released to mankind again. Man could be transferred from a state of death to a state of life by being ‘born again’ by the Spirit of God giving life to their spirits. It is only by the power of God entering our human hearts by His Spirit that we are restored to the Divine relationship. We choose Life and the Spirit of Life seals that choice by entering our very beings. Unless we have the source of Life – eat from the Tree of Life – we have no life but only a temporary existence. The Holy Spirit enters us and empowers us to believe and receive God’s word and will. We can live our lives from the wisdom and revelation given by God. The Tree of Life is eternal. If we press through and overcome by living our lives from the source of Life we will eat forever from the Tree of Life. (Revelation 2:7). We cannot take our knowledge from what is revealed through the world. A mixture of the two trees can twist our mindsets and beliefs. The media, society, culture and background can all influence our thinking and beliefs. We need to be set free from the effects of the tree of knowledge in our lives. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to search us and set us free. We need to ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the spirit of discernment to help us ‘know’ the truth. The truth will always set us free and bring us peace to accept the will of God. Where there is control and dis-peace in our hearts or lives we need to look for their source. It will be something we have eaten from the tree of knowledge of what works in this world, rather than the truth that comes from God. As we continually learn to live from the source of Life we will be transformed and, in turn, will transform where we live on the earth. God will restore us to His original plan of relationship with Him, provision from Him, ruling for Him and bringing His kingdom to the earth by our faith and works. Our job is to believe God and not trust our own knowledge. We cannot put any confidence in our own abilities. We must put our abilities in the confidence of God’s will. Philippians 3:3 – we have no confidence in our flesh Prayer is what we do to receive the revelation and provision of God’s word. It comes by the Spirit and releases the Spirit’s power. Then our confidence will be in knowing His will and that He will fulfil His will in our lives. (1 John 5:14) Spirit of God come. Will of God be done. |
Christine Larkin, 10/12/2009 |